


We Owe It

by NoodleImperial



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Angst, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Post-Reaper War, Sad and Sweet, remembering lost loves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 09:53:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20673419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoodleImperial/pseuds/NoodleImperial
Summary: Grand Admiral Thrawn and Commander Celeste Shepard spend the morning in bed thinking about the past.(Half beta read, barely edited)





	We Owe It

**Author's Note:**

> In my friend group we have nicknames for each other because we're nerds and its funny. Mine is Thrawn, my girlfriend's is Shepard  
My best friend offhandedly mentioned how "Oh you to together makes me want to ship Thrawn and Shep"  
....  
So I wrote this  
It is total self serving-ness but I also had to make it sad since I hardcore ship Thrawn and Eli  
So the galaxy Star Wars takes place in was decimated by the Reapers some how Thrawn made it to the Milky Way and teamed up with Celeste Shepard and the motley crew of the Normandy.  
Seriously contemplating writing the whole Mass Effect Trilogy with just the addition of Thrawn but IDK I don't have to much time... grad school and all.

Thrawn was more asleep than he was awake; drawn into partial consciousness by a faint but steady clicking and bubbling. He cracked an eye open to see what in his cabin could possibly be making that sound.

He wasn't in his cabin. 

The wall that should have been occupied by the artificial tree for the ysalamir was a large fish tank. He was completely confused. Where was he? How did he get here? Something shifted beside him. He spun ready to defend himself.

Right… Celeste.

He was on the Normandy, with Celeste. He hadn’t been on the Chimeara in years. He settled back down beside her. But his movement caused her to stir.

"Hey, mornin," she mumbled shifting closer to him, putting a hand on his chest. 

"Morning." He mumbled back sliding an arm around her waist. She smiled up at him. "Did you sleep well?" He asked.

"I should be asking you that… this is my room."

He chuckled. "I did," he leaned in and kissed her forehead.

She smiled and tucked herself against him. "Can we just stay in bed today?"

"You're the commander." He said pulling the blankets up around her shoulders. "And as far as I know no one tells Commander Shepard 'no', exccept for maybe sometimes Garrus."

She snorted but nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck.

There was a comforting, calm silence that settled around them like another blanket. Thrawn wasn't about to tell her she needed to get up. She and the ground team had taken a beating on a mission the day before. Celeste deserved some rest. He ran a hand over her arm.

He found himself running his thumb over one of her tattoos. A name.

** _Thane Krios _ **

"Do you think about him?" He asked his voice soft.

Her voice wobbled. "Yeah… everyday. Do you think about Eli?"

He felt tears prick his eyelids. "Everyday."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, of course."

"Were you there with him… when-"

"Not exactly." He said, the memory flashing through his mind. "He was able to holo call me before the ship he was on was….. disintegrated." Tears were beyond being held back as words seemed to tumble from his lips. "But I-I at least got to say goodbye and tell him I love him one last time. And from what we know it was a Sovereign Class Reaper so it would have been instantaneous… so I know he wasn't in pain… didn't suffer… and… and knew I loved him."

Celeste was hugging him tight. "I'm so sorry Thrawn."

He just held on to her. He didn't need to ask if Celeste was there when Thane died. He had been there too… sort of. He had waited outside Thane's hospital room. He was there when she staggered out. He hadn’t needed an explanation of what happened; he saw the abject grief and devastation written on her face and even in her body language. The indomitable Commander Shepard had crumbled. She had blindly reached for him. And he hadn’t really left her side since. He had been there when she got her revenge on Kai Leng. And she had, in a way taken him with her up to the Crucible. EDI had told everyone the data from Shepard's visor had been unsalvageable but had sent him a file showing the few moments before the Crucible kicked on and exploded. The audio had been a little rough but he had heard her as she shot at the reactor 

"For Earth, For Palaven, For the Ascendancy, and for Eli."

The Reapers had thrown them into each other's lives and damn near killed them both. But the Reapers were gone. And they both miraculously survived. Thrawn made sure he was there when Celeste woke up. Throughout the galaxy rebuilding they grew even closer, bonded through their pain and loss. Until they decided that maybe they’d give love another chance. And that's how they found themselves crying together in the early morning.

Until Celeste started laughing.

"Do you think they're trading stories of us being ridiculous?" She sniffed. "Keeping each other company while they wait for us?"

Thrawn imagined it. Eli and Thane sitting and trading stories of them. He gave a watery laugh. "I hope so."

He liked the thought of that. Eli so warm and bright getting stoic reserved Thane to laugh. He could hear it. Eli’s wonderful Wild Space drawl.

_“And do ya know what his idea of a disguise was? A hood and some glasses.”_

And Thane would laugh, that soft puff of a chuckle. 

Thrawn’s mind wandered further on the subject; who else would be there? Ar’alani? Faro? Thrass? Pelleaon? Mordin? Legion? Anderson? Williams? Would the lost souls of Csilla, Lysatra, Earth and Palaven be in the same spot? Should he even hope to be so lucky that the after life would afford such a luxury as everyone in peace together?

“Hey you still in there?” Celeste’s voice yanked him back.

“Yes. I was just thinking.”

“About what?” She asked propping herself up on an elbow and brushing his disheveled hair back out of his face. “You were getting those lines in between your eyebrows when you’re thinking about something particularly hard.”

“How much we lost to the Reapers.” he said solemnly. “How much destruction they caused, and the pain they left behind.”

Celeste was quiet for a long moment. “Reminds me of what Hackett told me at Anderson’s memorial. ‘We never bury the dead. Not really. We take them with us. It’s the price of living.’ And he’s right Garrus carries his mother with him. Tali carries her dad. But I think that we owe it to the dead to keep on living. No matter the price.”

Thrawn regarded her as she stared off at the fish tank, knowing she wasn’t really seeing it, before nodding slightly. “I think you’re right.” 

Celeste flopped back down but only stayed there for a moment before she swung her legs off the bed and popped to her feet. She walked over to where Thrawn’s two ysalamiri, Cassiopeia and Leo, lay snoozing. She scooped the critters up and walked over to Thrawn handing him Cassiopeia, keeping Leo snuggled up to her chest.

“We owe it to the dead to keep on living, but we owe the rest of the living to help keep on going. The galaxy is on an up swing but there’s someone somewhere who needs.”

“Very well,” He said standing. “But what do we owe ourselves?”

Celeste paused before saying “At least breakfast and a few cups of coffee.”

**Author's Note:**

> The line "We never bury the dead. Not really. We take them with us. It’s the price of living" I took from Sleepy Hollow.


End file.
